‘SPIN SISTERS’ KEEP BIKE-A-THON ROLLING

The first charity bike-a-thon at the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA in Encinitas was sort of a training-wheels affair. It was 2002, and a few spin-instructor friends had organized an extended indoor-cycling class to raise money for the facility’s annual giving campaign. At the end of the three-hour session, the friends passed a hat, and the Ecke YMCA had $1,100 additional dollars to help send needy kids to camp.

As for the women who would later be known as the “Spin Sisters,” they had a monster on their hands.

“The members loved it so much, they said, ‘Can we do this every month?’” Spin Sisters ringleader Robin Missailidis deadpanned. “We said, ‘No.’”

The members had to settle for once a year, and now the Little Bike-a-Thon That Could has become one of the Ecke Y’s signature annual fundraisers. This year’s event happens Saturday, ﻿and it will run for 10 hours. The festivities will include a health fair, food and prizes from local sponsors and auctions of both the live and silent variety.

Expected attendance? Nearly 300. Funds raised? If the past few years are any indication, the event could bring in more than $45,000 to help financially challenged families and seniors take advantage of YMCA’s programs.

It is a nice chunk of change. But while it is more than Missailidis (who coaches cross-country and track at Diegueño Middle School) and fellow spinners Patty Barry (an adaptive physical education teacher) and Laura Stuart-Platenburg (a second-grade teacher) ever expected to raise, it is no more than the friends think the Ecke Y deserves.

“We all care deeply about the Y and about the kids in our community,” Barry said during a joint interview in Missailidis’ Encinitas home. “I worked my way through college as a park and recreation counselor, and I went to camp when I was a kid and I loved it. We all know what that experience is like, and we wanted to make sure other kids have that same opportunity.”

Way back in the early 2000s, Missailidis, Barry and Stuart-Platenburg were just three über-active North County dwellers bonded by a mutual love of kids and copious amounts of exercise. Eventually, they all ended up leading indoor-cycling classes at the Ecke YMCA. Inevitably, they were asked to make fundraising phone calls on behalf of the annual giving campaign. Not surprisingly, Missailidis had her own ideas about that.

“The Super Bowl was coming up, and I didn’t want to be making these phone calls, so we thought we would do something different,” the former pharmaceutical rep said with a grin. “We decided to do a three-hour spin class before the Super Bowl so we could eat more during the game, and then we thought we would pass around the hat when it was over and give the money to the Y.”

They also thought that as long as they were making the class longer, they might as well make it more fun. Stuart-Platenburg, who is a PowerBar-sponsored athlete, donated a stack of PowerBar T-shirts. Missailidis threw in a few Rubio’s gift cards. A local sock-maker donated some of his wares, and a friend who worked for Zoot kicked in backpacks.

Children were recruited to pass out raffle tickets and husbands helped with cleanup. And when it was all over, the Spin Sisters had done more than organize a fundraiser. They had started a tradition.

“A decade later and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised, I’ve received phone calls from across the country asking how to put on a bike-a-thon like ours,” said Emily Figueiredo, the Ecke Y’s director of financial development and events. “These women truly tapped into what the Y is all about — health, fun and building community.”

After that first event, each bike-a-thon raised twice as much money as the one before. About five years ago, the Spin Sisters handed the ever-expanding event over to the Ecke Y, where staff members now manage the logistics and the money.

The three friends are still on the organizing committee, and they will each lead an hourlong segment of this year’s marathon ride. Robin’s husband, George, will still be the master of ceremonies, and various sons and daughters will still be on raffle and freebie duty.

And the Spin Sisters will probably spend a few money-raising hours pedaling along with the members of their extended YMCA family, a group that includes members riding in memory of friends and loved ones who have passed away. What started as a fun prelude to a day of eating and watching football is now a day for cheering on the spirit of a community’s home away from home.

“In the beginning, it was just about sending kids to camp,” Stuart-Platenburg said. “Now, it’s for so many things.”